PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Expositor's Bible: The First Book of Kings
Farrar, F. W. (Frederic William) · 144,384 words · 209 reading sections
Footnotes:
[193] Josephus, _Antt._, VIII. vii. 8. According to one tradition he lived to fifty-three (Ewald, iii. 208), and was only twelve when he succeeded David. [194] 2 Chron. viii. 3. Ewald thinks it is confirmed by 2 Kings xiv. 28, where, however, the Hebrew is obscure. [195] 1 Kings x. 26. [196] 1 Kings ix. 18. Here the…
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[212] 2 Sam. v. 14; Zech. xii. 12; Luke iii. 31. [213] The degraded and ominous apparitions of _Sarisim_ (eunuchs) probably began at the court of Solomon on a large scale, though the name occurs in the days of David (1 Sam. viii. 15; 1 Chron. xxviii. 1). In the Northern Kingdom we first hear of them in the harem of th…
520 wordsSECTION 63_The Temple._
1 KINGS v., vi., vii. "And his next son, for wealth and wisdom famed, The clouded Ark of God, till then in tents Wandering, shall in a glorious temple enshrine." _Paradise Lost_, xii. 340. After the destructive battle of Aphek, in which the Philistines had defeated Israel, slain the two sons of Eli, and taken capt…
962 wordsSECTION 64_The Temple._
Some writers have tried to minimise Solomon's work as a builder, and have spoken of the Temple as an exceedingly insignificant structure which would not stand a moment's comparison with the smallest and humblest of our own cathedrals. Insignificant in size it certainly was, but we must not forget its costly splendour, …
901 wordsSECTION 65_The Temple._
Apart from the lavish costliness of its materials the actual Temple was architecturally a poor and commonplace structure. It was quite small--only 90 feet long, 35 feet broad, and 45 feet high. It was meant for the symbolic habitation of God, not for the worship of great congregations. It only represented the nascent a…
670 wordsSECTION 66_The Temple._
On the western side of this court, facing the rising sun, stood the Temple itself, on a platform elevated some sixteen feet from the ground. Its side chambers were "lean-to" annexes (Heb., ribs; LXX., μέλαθρα; Vulg., _tabulata_), in three stories, all accessible by one central entrance on the outside. Their beams reste…
762 wordsSECTION 67_The Temple._
The entrance to the Holiest, the _Debir_, or oracle,[270] which corresponded to the Greek _adytum_, was through a two-leaved door of olive wood, 6 feet high and broad, overlaid with gold, and carved with palms, cherubim, and open flowers. The partition was of cedar wood. The floor of the whole house was of cedar overla…
758 wordsSECTION 68_The Temple._
The dedication ceremony was carried out with the utmost pomp. It required nearly a year to complete the necessary preparations, and the ceremony with its feasts occupied fourteen days, which were partly coincident with the autumn Feast of Tabernacles.[278] The dedication falls into three great acts. The first was the …
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After the dedicatory prayer both the outer and the inner court of the Temple reeked and swam with the blood of countless victims--victims so numerous that the great brazen altar became wholly insufficient for them.[287] At the close of the entire festival they departed to their homes with joy and gladness.[288] But wh…
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[243] "Araunah the king" (2 Sam. xxiv. 23). The Temple Mount was usually called the "Mount of the House." It is only called Mount Moriah in 2 Chron. iii. 1. It cannot be regarded as certain that "the land of Moriah" (Gen. xxii. 2) is identical with it. [244] "The present platform is 1521 feet long on the east, 940 on …
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[261] The descriptions of these lavers, whether in the Hebrew, the LXX., or Josephus, are not intelligible, and are wholly unimportant. [262] Like the palace of Ecbatana (Polyb., x. 27, 10; Herod., i. 98), and possibly the upper stories of the great temple of Bel at Birs-Nimrud (Borsippa). [263] In 1 Kings x. 12 "pil…
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[279] It was perhaps stored away in one of the Temple chambers (2 Macc. ii. 4). The Gibeonites (_Nethinim_) were at the same time transferred to Jerusalem. The chronicler (2 Chron. v. 6) says that _the Levites_ took the Ark, according to the Levitic rule; but 1 Kings viii. 3 says that _the priests_ bore it, as in Deut.…
660 wordsSECTION 73_The Ideal Significance Of The Temple._
1 KINGS vii. 13-51, viii. 12-61. "The hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.... But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth."--JOHN iv. 21, 23. Five long chapters of the First Book of Kings are dev…
683 wordsSECTION 74_The Ideal Significance Of The Temple._
The book in which its symbolism is most thoroughly worked out is Bähr's _Symbolik_. He elaborates, in a simpler form, the opinion of Philo, that the Temple represented "the structure which God has erected, the house in which God lives." So far the fact cannot be disputed for, in Exod. xxix. 45 we are told that the Tabe…
386 wordsSECTION 75_The Ark And The Cherubim._
[290] The scepticism of modern critics, who doubt whether there ever was a Tabernacle in the wilderness at all, seems to be insufficiently grounded. [291] _Vit. Mos._, iii.; _Antt._, III. vi. 4, vii. 7; _B. J._, VII. v. 5. [292] _E.g._, Origen (_Hom._, ix.), Clement of Alexandria (_Strom._, v.), Theodoret (_Qu._, xl.…
655 wordsSECTION 76_The Ark And The Cherubim._
And what did it contain? What was it which enshrined in itself this quintessence of all sanctitude? When we pierce to the inmost recesses of a pyramid, we find there only the ashes of a dead man, or even of an animal. Within the adytum of an Egyptian temple we might have found "an ox wallowing on purple tapestry." The …
1,024 wordsSECTION 77_The Ark And The Cherubim._
(2) But when next they are mentioned, God says to Moses, "Thou shalt make a mercy-seat of pure gold, and thou shalt make two cherubim of gold at the two ends of the mercy-seat." But for their presence on the mercy-seat how terrible would have been the symbolism of the Holy of Holies--God's darkness, man's crime, a brok…
894 wordsSECTION 78_The Gradual Growth Of The Levitic Ritual._
[300] Kuenen's notion that the cherubim had come to the Jews through the Phœnicians from the Assyrians is quite improbable. The symbol was common throughout the East, whatever be the derivation of the word. [301] Compare Ezek. i. 10 with x. 14, where "the face of an ox" is identical with "the face of a cherub." Perhap…
758 wordsSECTION 79_The Gradual Growth Of The Levitic Ritual._
3. Again, as we have seen, in spite of the positive distinctness of the Second Commandment, not only is the "calf-worship" established, with scarcely a protest, throughout the Northern Kingdom; but Solomon even ventures, without question or reproof, to place twelve oxen under his brazen sea, and to adorn the steps of h…
688 wordsSECTION 80_The Gradual Growth Of The Levitic Ritual._
It must be admitted that these facts are not capable of easy explanation, nor is it strange that they have led the way to unexpected conclusions. We have to face the certainty that, for ages together, the Levitic law was not only a dead letter among the people for whom it was intended, but that its very existence does …
587 wordsSECTION 81_The Temple Worship._
[307] See, especially, Deut. xii. 5-19. In the later Priestly Code the centralisation of worship is not inculcated, but supposed to be already established. In the original Book of the Covenant it is not required at all. [308] Judg. ii. 5, vi. 24, viii. 27, xx. 1, xxi. 2, 4; 1 Sam. vii. 9, x. 8, xi. 15, xiii. 9, xvi. 5…
807 wordsSECTION 82_The Temple Worship._
Had such spectacles been frequent, we should surely have had to say of the people of Jerusalem as Sir Monier Williams says of the ancient Hindus, "The land was saturated with blood, and people became wearied and disgusted with slaughtered sacrifices and sacrificing priests."[317] What infinite, and what revolting labou…
740 wordsSECTION 83_The Temple Worship._
2. When we proceed to speak of _the Priesthood_ we are met by difficulties, to which we have already alluded, as to the date of the varying regulations respecting it. "It would be difficult," says Dr. Edersheim, "to conceive arrangements more thoroughly or consistently opposed to what are commonly called 'priestly pret…
789 wordsSECTION 84Footnotes:
[315] "Sacrificia symbolicæ preces" (Outram, _De Sacrif._, p. 108). [316] _Yoma_, f. 21, _a_. [317] On vast ancient holocausts, see Athen., _Deipnos._, i. 5; Diod. Sic., xi. 72; Porph., _De abstin._, ii. 60; Suet., _Calig._, 14; Sen., _De Benef._, iii. 27; Ammian. Marcel., xxii. 4, xxv. 4; and other passages collecte…
320 wordsSECTION 85_The Temple Sacrifices._
1 KINGS viii. 62-66, ix. 25. "I have chosen this house to Myself for an house of sacrifice."--2 Chron. vii. 12. "Gifts and sacrifices, that cannot, as touching the conscience, make the worshipper perfect, being only ... carnal ordinances, imposed until a time of reformation."--Heb. ix. 9, 10. The whole sacrificia…
698 wordsSECTION 86_The Temple Sacrifices._
The oldest practice seems only to have known of burnt offerings and thank offerings, and the former seem only to have been offered at great sacrificial feasts. Even in Deuteronomy a common phrase for sacrifices is "eating before the Lord," which is almost ignored in the Priestly Code. Of the sin offering, which in that…
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Many of the crudities, and even horrors, which, alike in Jewish and Christian times, have been mixed up with the idea of bloody sacrifices, would have been removed if more attention had been paid to the prominence and real significance of _blood_ in the entire ritual. As taught by some revivalists the doctrine of the b…
746 wordsSECTION 88_The Temple Sacrifices._
It is interesting to observe how utterly the sacrificial priestly system, in the abuses which not only became involved in it, but seemed to be almost inseparable from it, is condemned by the loftier spiritual intuition which belongs to phases of revelation higher than the external and the typical. Thus in the Old Test…
745 wordsSECTION 89_The Temple Sacrifices._
Jeremiah is, in fact, the most anti-ritualistic of the prophets. So far from having hid and saved the Ark, he regarded it as entirely obsolete (iii. 16). He cares only for the spiritual covenant written on the heart, and very little, if at all, for Temple services and Levitic scrupulosities (vii. 4-15, xxxi. 31-34).[35…
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Such, too, was the opinion of the ancient Fathers,--of the author of the Epistle of Barnabas, of Justin Martyr, Origen, Tertullian, Jerome, Chrysostom, Epiphanius, Cyril, and Theodoret, who are followed by such Roman Catholic theologians as Petavius and Bellarmine.[371] This at any rate is certain:--that the Judaic sy…
668 wordsSECTION 91_The Temple Sacrifices._
And in the days when Judaism most prized itself on ritual faithfulness, the Lord of the Temple was insulted in the Temple of the Lord, and its courts were turned by greedy priests and Sadducees into a cowshed, and a dovecot, and a fair, and a usurer's mart, and a robber's den. From the first the centralisation of wors…
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[329] He refers to Wünsche, _Die Leiden des Messias_. [330] Mark ix. 49. [331] Lev. vi. 17, vii. 1, xiv. 13. On this whole subject see Edersheim, pp. 79-111. [332] See Judg. vi. 19-21; 1 Sam. ii. 13, xiv. 35; 1 Kings xix. 21; 2 Kings v. 17. [333] LXX., ὁλοκαύτωμα. [334] LXX., περὶ ἁμαρτίας. _Chattath_ and _Ashâm_ …
658 wordsSECTION 93_Solomon In All His Glory._
[361] Matt. ix. 13. [362] Matt. xii. 7. [363] Rom. xii. 1; 1 Peter ii. 5. [364] Heb. x. 4, 11. [365] Heb. xiii. 16. [366] Ecclus. xxxv. 1-15. [367] Comp. Ov., _Trist._, ii. 1, 75; Ep. xx. 81; Persius, ii. 45; Varro, _ap._ Arnob., _c. Natt._, vii. 1. "Dii veri neque desiderant ea, neque deposcunt." [368] Philo, _…
707 wordsSECTION 94_Solomon In All His Glory._
He further dazzled his people by an extensive system of foreign commerce. His land-traffic with Arabia familiarised them with spicery (_necoth_), gum tragacanth, frankincense, myrrh, aloes, and cassia and with precious stones of all kinds. From Egypt he obtained horses and chariots. They were brought from Tekoa, by his…
752 wordsSECTION 95_Solomon In All His Glory._
This career of magnificence culminated in the visit of Balkis, the Queen of Sheba,[392] who came to him across the desert with "a very great train of her camels, bearing spices and very much gold and precious stones." She saw his abounding prosperity, his peaceful people, his houses, his vineyards at Beth-Haccerem, his…
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[378] To form some notion of these buildings, see the excellent illustrations in Stade, i. 318-25. [379] The hill of Zion, the city of David, had become overcrowded, and the hill which lay to the north, which was called Millo, or "the border," had to be included in it. A narrow valley lay between them. "Mount Moriah, …
664 wordsSECTION 97_Hollow Prosperity._
[397] The 666 gold talents of his revenue are estimated at £3,613,500, and this is described as _his own_ revenue, exclusive of tolls, tributes, etc. (1 Kings x. 15). Presents reached him from "kings of the mingled people" (Jer. xxv. 24), Pachas of the country (פֶחָה Ezra v. 6; Neh. v. 14). [398] See Weil, _Biblische …
668 wordsSECTION 98_Hollow Prosperity._
3. Solomon's palatial buildings, while they flattered his pride and ministered to his luxury, tended directly, as we shall see, to undermine his power. They represented the ill-requited toil of hopeless bondmen, and oppressed freedmen, whose sighs rose, not in vain, into the ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth. 4. His com…
697 wordsSECTION 99_Hollow Prosperity._
So that the age of Solomon can in no respect be regarded as an age of gold. Rather, it resembled that grim Colossus of Dante's vision, which not only rested on a right foot of brittle clay, but was cracked and fissured through and through, while the wretchedness and torment which lay behind the outward splendour ever d…
723 wordsSECTION 100_Hollow Prosperity._
If the Book of Ecclesiastes, even traditionally, is the reflection and echo of Solomon's disenchantment, we see that in later years his soul had been sullied, his faith had grown dim, his fervour cold. All was emptiness. He stood horribly alone. His one son was not a wise man, but a fool. Gewgaws could no longer satisf…
367 wordsSECTION 101_The Old Age Of Solomon._
[400] See Euseb., _Præp. Evang._, x. 11. [401] Lev. xxv. 23, 24. See Judg. i. 31, 32. [402] Hence, perhaps, the name "Galilee of the nations" (Isa. ix. 1). Comp. "Harosheth of the nations" (Judg. iv. 2, 13). Hazor was in this district. [403] Milman, _Hist. of the Jews_, i. 321. [404] 1 Kings ix. 10-13. There was a …
754 wordsSECTION 102_The Old Age Of Solomon._
1. The first of these pictures of selfish autocrats is found in 1 Sam. viii. 10-18:-- "And Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that asked of Him a king. And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, …
778 wordsSECTION 103_The Old Age Of Solomon._
The sacred historian not only records the shameful fact, but records its cause and origin. The heart of Solomon was perverted, his will was weakened, his ideal was dragged into the mire by the "strange wives" who crowded his seraglio. He went the way that destroys kings.[413] The polygamy of Solomon sprang naturally fr…
857 wordsSECTION 104_The Old Age Of Solomon._
2. But the heathen religion of these strange women from so many nations "turned away the heart of Solomon after other gods." It may be doubted whether Solomon had ever read the stern prohibitions against intermarriage with the Canaanite nations which now stand on the page of the Pentateuch. If so he broke them, for the…
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[407] "L'amour du luxe et de la nouveauté le conduira peu à peu à défaire l'œuvre de son père, à ruiner le peuple dont il pouvait faire le bonheur, à detruire les institutions, et à dédaigner le culte national, auquel il avait d'abord cherché à donner le plus grand éclat."--Munk, _Palestine_, p. 285. [408] 1 Kings ix.…
354 wordsSECTION 106_The Wind And The Whirlwind._
1 KINGS xi. 14-41. "He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption."--GAL. vi. 8. Such degeneracy could not show itself in the king without danger to his people. "_Delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi._" In the disintegration of Solomon's power and the general disenchantment from the glamour of his magn…
699 wordsSECTION 107_The Wind And The Whirlwind._
Another enemy was Rezon, of whom but little is known. David had won a great victory, the most remarkable of all his successes, over Hadadezer, King of Zobah, and had then signalised his conquest by placing garrisons in Syria of Damascus. On this occasion Rezon, the son of Eli, who is perhaps identical with Hezion, the …
695 wordsSECTION 108_The Wind And The Whirlwind._
"We have no part in David, Neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse. Every man to his tents, O Israel." Jeroboam, who was now by Solomon's favour a chief ruler over his fellow-tribesmen, had many opportunities to foment this jealousy, and to win for himself by personal graciousness the popularity of Solomon w…
776 wordsSECTION 109_The Wind And The Whirlwind._
A scene so memorable, a prophecy of such grave significance, could hardly remain a secret. Ahijah may have hinted it among his sympathisers. Jeroboam would hardly be able to conceal from his friends the immense hopes which it excited; and as his position probably gave him the command of troops he became dangerous. His …
667 wordsSECTION 110_The Wind And The Whirlwind._
"With larger other eyes than ours To make allowance for us all." Orcagna was wiser when, in his great picture in the Campo Santo at Pisa and in the Strozzi Chapel at Florence, he represented Solomon rising out of his sepulchre in robe and crown at the trump of the archangel, uncertain whether he is to turn to the rig…
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"The king so renowned for his wisdom was on the loftiest elevation, and placed immediately beneath the Dome. 'The thunder,' he said, 'precipitated me hither, where, however, I do not remain totally destitute of hope; for an angel of light hath revealed that, in consideration of the piety of my early youth, my woes shal…
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[430] 1 Kings xi. 29, addition of LXX. [431] The square cloth worn over the other dress, and now called _abba_, seems to represent the _salemâh_ (שַׂלְמָה) here mentioned. [432] The story is usually made to apply to _Jeroboam's_ new robe; but in the addition to the LXX., where the action is ascribed to Shemaiah, the …
395 wordsSECTION 113_A New Reign._
1 KINGS xii. 1-5. "A foolish son is the calamity of his father."--PROV. xix. 13. "He left behind him Roboam, even the foolishness of the people, and one that had no understanding."--ECCLUS. xlvii. 23. Rehoboam, who was Solomon's only son, succeeded in Jerusalem without opposition, B.C. 937.[443] But the northern tr…
736 wordsSECTION 114_A New Reign._
"Threaten this insolent canaille," they said, "with your royal severity. Tell them that you do not intend to give up your sacred right to enforced labour, such as your brother of Egypt has always enjoyed.[448] Tell them that your little finger shall be thicker than your father's loins,[449] and that instead of his whip…
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[443] "Rehoboam" means "enlarger of the people" (comp. Eurudemos); Jeroboam, "whose people is many" (Poludemos; comp. Thiodric, Thierry). But Cheyne makes it mean "the kingdom contendeth" (Kleinert, _Volkstreiter_). [444] So we read in the LXX. Cod. Vat., and (partly) in the Vulgate (see Robertson Smith, _The Old Test…
319 wordsSECTION 116_The Disruption._
1 KINGS xii. 6-20. "_It was of the Lord._" It is no small proof of the insight and courageous faithfulness of the historian that he accepts without question the verdict of ancient prophecy that the disruption was God's doing; for everything which happened in the four subsequent centuries, alike in Judah and in Israel,…
691 wordsSECTION 117_The Disruption._
3. Again, the Northern Kingdom was unhampered by the bad example and erroneous development of the preceding royalty. Jeroboam had not stained his career with crimes like David; nor had he sunk, as Solomon had done, into polygamy and idolatry. It seemed unlikely that he, with so fatal an example before his eyes, could b…
853 wordsSECTION 118_The Disruption._
Against these advantages, however, must be set two serious and ultimately fatal drawbacks--germs of disease which lay in the very constitution of the kingdom, and from the first doomed it to death. One of these was the image-worship, of which I shall speak in a later section; the other was the lack of one predominant …
699 wordsSECTION 119_The Disruption._
How clearly, then, do we see the truth of the prophetic announcement that the disruption of the kingdom was "of the Lord"! Out of apparent catastrophe was evolved infinite reparation. The abandonment of the Davidic dynasty of the Ten Tribes looked like earthly ruin. It did indeed hasten the final overthrow of all natio…
568 wordsSECTION 120Chapter Xxvi.
[456] In 1 Kings xix. 3 it is reckoned as belonging to Judah (comp. Josh. xv. 28), being really a town of Simeon (Josh. xix. 2); but from Amos v. 5, viii. 14, we should infer that it was at any rate largely frequented by Israelites. [457] 1 Kings xvi. 34; 2 Kings ii. 4. [458] See Stanley, _Lectures on the Jewish Chur…
981 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.